


Who see with blinding sight

by Beleriandings



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-09-06 23:57:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8774896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings
Summary: Flower meaning prompts: lily - majesty, holly - foresight.





	

“Your majesty” said Guen, laying his hand on Hiryuu’s arm with a gentleness that Abi had never seen before. “Try to lie still, the healers -”

A quiet sound came from their king’s mouth, something that might have been either a laugh or a sob, or simply the sound of the struggle for the next breath, counting down the minutes. 

They all knew what was coming, after all. 

“The healers cannot help me now” said Hiryuu. His eyes seemed to stare through them, farther away than any normal human eyes could see, and Abi wanted to shut off his own gaze, close his own eyes and turn away. 

But, of course, he couldn’t.

Hiryuu’s smile was the worst of it, Abi decided. They all sat about him; the Queen, holding the small Prince and Princess on her lap, clinging onto the children as though to anchor herself to this world. Guen, whose face was wet and sheened with free-flowing tears, Shuten whose teeth were gritted. (Shuten’s eyes were also shining with held-back tears. Abi could see, and he knew that Shuten knew he could see, and thus trusted him.) Zeno, who gripped the King’s pale hand like a drowning man, his eyes dry and his face pale, drained of blood. 

Everything was wrong, upside down. 

Hiryuu coughed, bringing Abi back to the present, He felt his fingers flicker reflexively across the feathers of the tiny bird that sat on his shoulder, who immediately flew up to the rafters, leaving Abi bereft. 

Abi barely noticed, his eyes fixed on his king. _Maybe if he watched, maybe if he never stopped watching or turned his gaze away, then the blood that flowed in Hiryuu’s veins would never stop its course, the heart whose rhythm he could see slowing each second beneath layers of flesh and bone and cartilage would keep beating, moment by moment._

“There will come another….”

The words were too soft to hear, but Abi could read them on his lips, and they took him by surprise, making him start. 

The others had not understood, Abi realised. They must think that Hiryuu’s words were simply the quiet, unintelligible mumblings of a dying man. The thought hit him like sword through the heart.

“Your Majesty? ….Another?” Abi prompted, taking the King’s other hand in his own and holding it very tightly. 

But Hiryuu said nothing more, his violet eyes far away, as though looking through the mists of time, Abi thought. “Another… do not be afraid…. one day….”

His voice tailed off into nothing, his eyes turning horribly blank. 

“No!” 

That was Guen, clutching once more at the King’s hand with both of his own - dragon hand and human hand alike - as though by force he could physically hold him fast in the world, keep him from slipping away. 

But he couldn’t, Abi knew, with the tired certainty, a clarity greater than anything else held these days. ( _Save of course for the physical world; that always was in perfect focus.)_

“No, your Majesty, you can’t… please…”

“Hakuryuu.” Abi laid a hand on Guen’s arm, feeling the smooth, dry scales below his fingers. “He’s…. he’s…”

He had meant to finish that sentence, but somehow he found his voice stopping in his throat. He knew what was happening, of course; the King’s heart had stopped beating, under the fragile fabric of his flesh. 

That much he could see easily enough. 

Guen’s sobs were the only sound; the Prince was sitting there on his mother’s lap crying quietly; the little Princess his sister seemed stunned, shaking her head. “Father….”

“Hush, little one…” said the Queen, her own voice raw with tears as she held her daughter close to her chest. 

Shuten’s face was white as chalk, his jaw clenched and a look of desperate wildness in his eyes - rimmed by dark shadows; Abi knew he hadn’t slept recently, preferring to pace the walls or go to the roof and stare into the sky - as though he wanted to leap into the air, to fly away from this room, this palace, this land, but was frozen, rooted to the spot, still as though carved from brittle stone.

Zeno’s face was terrible to behold, his large, soft blue eyes filled with terrible shock, and yet also a weary inevitability that Abi too had felt. Zeno’s golden hair fell over his face, hiding his expression from the others.

But Abi could see. Abi could see everything.  

They had all felt it. They had known this was coming. 

Abi tore his gaze away from them, pressing the heels of his hands over his eyes; for once he wanted to simply _not_ see, to be blind and fall into darkness, oblivion. Even when he closed his eyes, their King’s face was still there - as it had been in life, set in determination or lit up with bright laughter or somewhere in between - overlaid with the pale, thin shadow of himself that their King hd become, who laid before them, still and unmoving. Not even a flicker of life danced beneath his skin; Abi was sure enough of that. 

_They had all known this was coming._

 Abi slowly reached out a hand and closed Hiryuu’s eyes, for the last time. 

Even now, Abi thought, he looked the part of the King lying in stately glory, his brilliant red hair spread out like a pool of blood against the white pillow. He was so _still_ ; it was a little jarring, for Hiryuu had never looked like that in life, always busy and laughing or talking, always moving. 

_As though he knew his time was running out._

“There will come another?” asked Zeno, into the silence; his voice was a plea, cracking a little even as he spoke. 

No one answered, but young Prince Yakshi raised his head, holding his mother’s hand very tight. 

The words of a dying man, Abi had always been taught, meant something. 

But for all his eyes could see, the future sat like a dark cloud ahead of them all, and within it, he could see nothing. 


End file.
